Word and time limits aside, would you care to delve into these "much deeper issues." All I got was racial discrimination and gentrification. Both these issues required a "twenty something, middle class, white girl " to get it straight(because verbs are earthy and colloquial when the subject matter is race/class in P-town's boroughs) from a "African-American cyclist" who presumably has deeper roots and authority on local issues than her naive inquisitor from a local Zine.

I honestly hope the hyped up identity cues were tinged with a little light-heartedness. Otherwise this reads like a teaser for a 70's movie or TV pilot about two unlikely partners from different backgrounds innocently teamed up to improve bike safety when SHIT GOT REAL.

Seriously though, outright hostility, or anger as you call it, might be better than the ever present passive aggressiveness and snark that pervade this city. But please explain how anger didn't rear it's cathartic head in other race/class related issues in this city. How has it significantly manifested itself in this issue compared to others.

Why do the proposed reforms make people mad? Wouldn't it be better to identify a non-cyclist with local credentials to interview? Just going off your description of Hutchins, she seems like somebody who could easily lines up with your worldview as well as other recent, progressive transplants ... despite incidentally being black.

@Tits McGee - I think Hutchins is a good person to talk with about these issues not because she's "incidentally black" but more because she is a long-time resident of the neighborhood and the chair of the North Williams Project Stakeholder Committee. That means she intimately understands both the historic issues in the neighborhood and the current wonky details of the project.

Not fair! You added more context about Hutchins and the "Williams revamp" that wasn't in the print edition (paragraph 8, "Hutchins was one of the strongest voices ..."), potentially after my comment.

Otherwise "incidentally black" was over the line. But, to me, the way you contrasted yourself with Hutchins had an awkward feel.

@Tits,
The print version and online version of this article (as well as many articles!) are different. But online versions of article are never altered after the time they're posted, unless we note it in the bottom as a correction. That would be a serious ethical problem.

I'd love to hear what people would think if some infrastructure change threatened to bring more minorities to Lake Oswego and a bunch of soccer mom's got together to protest "those people" coming into their neighborhood. I mean it isn't like they hate them, they just don't want the neighborhood to "change".

asdfsdf

The disgusting irony buried deep in this article is more indicative of problems relating to gentrification than anything discussed within.

Case in point: "(I) admit that I'm personally clueless when it comes the weighty, personal issues of racial discrimination and gentrification (Instead), I called up (an) African American."

How fucking Portland can we get? The idea of distanced activism, fetishized minority culture and, in more ways than one, even ADDRESSING the issue of bicycles in a deteriorating post-metropolis in which freeways and Black neighborhoods alike are neglected so that trust-fund "art district" scum can write their little articles and call up their token friends,... is racist.

There are two types of racism, dumb racism and insulting racism. The KKK member who fears that Snoop Dogg is turning his white daughter into a hooker, there is little to no hope for that "type" of racism, and it exists mostly outside of Portland. The worse, second type of racism is the head-patting, euphemism-laden "I know what's best for my Black neighbor" BULLSHIT that permeates the majority of all local media, including the Portland Mercury.

How about hiring a Black chick to write the column? I mean, it's a glorfied blog that echos the thoughts of everyone between Belmont / 35th and Belmont / 12th, why not expand to cater to the rest of Portland.

Have fun at your next art show held in whatever renovated crackhouse your parents paid for.

Also, and sorry for the double comment, but I'm sure one "Black cyclist"'s opinion of gentrification represents the entirety of the whole race.

Suggestion: canvas the neighborhood, door-to-door, and see what the residents think. Lots of them. As in, something statistically significant.

BTW I just asked MY Black friend what she thinks of this shit, and she agrees. So I'll see your token and raise you a token AND logic.

;)